Plan Calls for Investment in Girls at CSW

This March at the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women: Beijing +15, Plan will call on UN Member States to renew their commitment to the world's girls.

Every year, UN Member States gather to evaluate progress, identify challenges and formulate policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide. The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) reports on the status of women's rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields, and makes recommendations on problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women's rights.

This year marks the 54th session of the CSW and the 15th anniversary of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action - which paid particular attention to the rights of the girl child. A Plan delegation will attend this year’s session to raise awareness for girls' issues.

Plan will call on all Member States to make investments in the following areas of critical priority:

Eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against girls

Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) are culturally driven breaches of girls' right to life, survival and development, their right to health and to equal treatment, their right to protection against all forms of physical and psychological violence or abuse and the right to participate in the decision making processes which affect their life. Plan therefore calls on Member States to:

Develop systematic data collection on all the different types of HTPs, especially those that are less known, to better target interventions

Create child-friendly and gender-sensitive mechanisms for child protection and invest in public education and sensitization programs that challenge prevailing discriminatory attitudes and practices, and promote collective socio-cultural change together with men, women, boys and girls

Promote girls' awareness of and participation in economic life

Plan's third annual report, Because I am a Girl; Girls in the Global Economy: Adding It All Up, shows how investing in girls and young women can literally transform lives and be a major force in driving economic progress. At each stage of a girl's life, there are concrete investments that governments can make to pave the way for girls to emerge into young adulthood as successful social and economic citizens. Therefore, Plan calls on Member States to invest in:

Building the foundations for girls' economic future in the early years by ensuring that girls have a legal identify through introducing or enforcing legislation that mandates accessible birth registration

Ensuring that markets and business opportunities work for young women by expanding access to financial instruments for credit and savings, including microfinance, and supporting young women as entrepreneurs

Maintain State interest, accountability and engagement on girls' issues

Although globally girls face a distinct experience of discrimination as compared to women and boys, they receive insufficient attention and investment and continually fall from State agendas.

The time has come to ensure that they remain on the world's agendas. Plan calls for an internationally recognized Day of the Girl, to acknowledge the importance and value of girls and ensure States take requisite action to improve their lives.

Plan calls on the United Nations and Member States to declare September 22 as International Day of the Girl